This Might Surprise You: A Story of Plastic Bags in Pictures

It all started off like this...

In February of 2012, I learned plastic bags were not accepted in Austin's Single Stream recycling program (story of discovery...here).  So, a collection of plastic bags ensued.  All colors, shapes, sizes, and purposes.  Eventually, things started to get a bit out of control.  Something had to be done:

The first step involved getting a better understanding of what we were dealing with.  Once all the bags were put on the table, it was quite an impressive sight.  This is the picture of two, average female consumers making a conscious choice to divert plastic bags from the trash/recycling bags over the period of four months.  This is what we had:

Impressive, huh?  

Digging a little deeper reveals a variety of plastic types.  Identified by the number within the recycling triangle, there were at least three different kinds of plastic in the pile.  There was #2 (HDPE), #4 (LDPE), and #5 (PP).   

Our pile was massive.  Once folded and organized, the random, chaotic pile was turned into a stack of plastic pushing 9 inches high.

The pile above is the nicer, thicker plastic bags from places like the UT Coop, Gap, etc.  That pile was NOT including the thinner plastic bags from places like HEB, Target, Walmart, etc.  Thankfully, we had a BIG plastic bag capable of holding all of the smaller plastic baggies.  

What if our table of plastic bags could go from something like this:

To something like this:

If TWO people could create THAT much plastic bag excess in FOUR months... think about how much plastic is used WORLDWIDE.  And most people don't even think about the packaging and bags they use.  Typically, bags aren't thought of as part of the 'product'.  While plastic has helped revolutionize the packaging industry because it is strong and light, it's creating a lot of waste in landfills.  But, back to what we CAN do with the plastic bags we already have...

After doing some reading on the different types of plastics, apparently certain types are not generally accepted by recycling programs.  Being a proactive recycler, I called up HEB.  After talking with the store manager about his plastic bag recycling program, it seemed as though any and all types of plastic baggies were welcome.  The more the merrier!  And, after looking up and down and all around the collection bin outside of HEB, no reference to plastic selectively could be found. 

The plastic bag recycling bin is the next step as our plastic bags go on to bigger and better things. But who knows, we might just come across our (recycled) plastic again =) 

Other links of interest:

Interesting plastic recycling facts from the EPA

PKG Packaging is an example of a company in California that is working to make eco-friendly packaging.



Update: August 3, 2012

All new bags, one month after recycling the other bag of bags.  Wow.

As I separated the two piles, I noticed 

• a lot of cereal bags.  This makes me think of in.gredients, the first zero packaging grocery store in Austin, supposed to open sometime this summer! :D
• more plastic Ziploc baggies.  I think this trend has to do with the fact that there are two people in the apartment now, and we're both taking our lunch to work.  We both like to cook and keep our leftovers and partially used veggies in Tupperware containers.  So, when we run out of Tupperware for lunch packing purposes, we go for the ziplock baggies  ...We should consider getting more Tupperware!  Or, even better, relieving a friend of their commonly unused Tupperware containers :D

Update: October 8, 2012

Just over 2 months later:

By far, hands down, without a doubt the most surprising thing since recycling plastic bags has been realizing just how many there are!  Our collection bag just keeps on filling up!  Two months later and we have THIS many plastic bags??  How??!!   Sorting through the collection before we take it to the recycling bin at the grocery store offers some insight into what the makeup of our plastic collection looks like.  We've done a pretty good job at almost eliminating individual Ziploc baggie usage as well as grocery store plastic bags, so most of what we collect nowadays tends to be food packing related.  There were lots of bags from bread (sometimes 2 bags for 1 loaf), tortillas,  veggie and fruit plastic bags from the produce section, pasta bags, and bulk food section bags.  Then there was some toilet paper plastic wrap and a massive wad of plastic film from the dry-cleaners.  It just all adds up to an impressive amount.  

This was Gloriana's first trip to recycle the bags.  She was pretty pumped :)

Let's see... any takers on when the collection bag will fill up again? :D  

Update: December 5, 2012
I'm starting to notice a trend in the time intervals between updates...

Bag Untouched

Bag Sorted Through .... Kind of :) 

  This is a pretty easy project to keep tracking, so... stayed tuned! :)